If you thought there were already way too many video game adaptations, then buckle up because the train isn’t stopping anytime soon. There’s a Silent Hill movie in theaters, albeit one you might want to pass on watching, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is coming in April and both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat movies are happening in 2026.
Elsewhere, work on Season 3 of The Last of Us is ongoing, and the Season 2 finale of Amazon Prime’s Fallout adaptation is set for later this week. In other words, it’s a lot, and there’s still so much more to come, including a “Steal A Brainrot” movie.
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However, not everything is fit for TV or film, and former Bethesda lead designer Bruce Nesmith has cautioned against taking The Elder Scrolls and making it into a live-action adaptation.
In an interview with digital PR agency Press Box PR, and as first spotted by GamesRadar, Nesmith explained what makes Fallout so compelling as an adaptation and why that just wouldn’t work for Skyrim or any other TES title.
To put it simply, Fallout as a franchise and world is so “unique” that it just works outside of gaming. The Elder Scrolls, meanwhile, is one of several fantasy properties.
“I also think there’s something very special and different and unique about Fallout that lends itself to becoming a TV or movie experience, whereas The Elder Scrolls is trying to be a standard kind of fantasy,” Nesmith said. “That’s not as interesting, not in this day and age where you already have The Lord of the Rings movies. We’ve got Game of Thrones. You’d have to try to find something to lean into that would be special about it.”
Nesmith further explained how “there is nothing” like Fallout anywhere else. That’s part of what makes the wait for a new Fallout game so agonizing and why Season 2 once again had gamers begging for a new game.
“That makes it easy to make a TV show and draw eyeballs as opposed to going into a fantasy world where I’ve got elves and people throwing spells around. You’d have to raise those stakes. There’s a dragon? I’ve seen dragons 20 times before. What are you giving to viewers that’s new?
That said, Nesmith does think a movie would probably fit things better, and with the right hook, that makes a ton of sense.
For his part, Todd Howard said in 2024 that he’s shot down multiple pitches for The Elder Scrolls on TV. But then a year later, and Fallout on Prime even more popular, he said that there is a “path” to an Elder Scrolls adaptation, one that seemingly became clearer following Fallout’s impact.
- Released
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November 11, 2011
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol
- Developer(s)
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Bethesda Game Studios
- Publisher(s)
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Bethesda Softworks
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